10 Things We're Slowly Starting to Learn at SXSW

Here's what we are starting to learn from our first trip to SXSW 2014.

Mar 14, 2014

This is our first time at SXSW, and we're still trying to figure out what it's all about. There's good music and good food as expected, but it can be a little overwhelming at first. With so much going on at all times, it's hard to really wrap your head around what this Austin festival is all about, but we're starting to get it. We're starting to learn about the people, the culture, and the little things that make SXSW what it is. Here's what we've figured out so far.

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This is our first time at SXSW, and we're still trying to figure out what it's all about. There's good music and good food as expected, but it can be a little overwhelming at first. With so much going on at all times, it's hard to really wrap your head around what this Austin festival is all about, but we're starting to get it. We're starting to learn about the people, the culture, and the little things that make SXSW what it is. Here's what we've figured out so far.

2. People will tweet about your brand, no matter what, if you give them free food.

Nobody likes brands. Despite being an effective and important part of any modern marketing strategy, corporate sponsorships are lame as hell and "branding" has become a dirty word. And putting hashtags in your tweets to support a new product or service is basically like publicly shouting out that you're a little kiss-ass. These days, people care about one brand: their personal brand, and they aren't going to fuck that up by tweeting about your stupid new ad campaign...

Unless you give them free food.

Give a man a free sandwich and he will literally be like: "I'm a #SubwayGal! Enjoying a sandwich at SXSW at the Subway Sandwich Salon. #EatMe #Hehe"

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4. Once you enter Austin your phone battery immediately drops to 12%.

In all the time we spent worrying about our phones running out of battery, talking about our phones running out of battery, talking about worrying about our phones getting out of battery, looking for somewhere to charge our phones, looking for somewhere to charge the charging packs for our phones, checking our phones to see how much battery and realizing that we're just wasting more battery, we could have seen, like, 50 other bands.

It's stupid, we know, but we're so attached to our phones, and we use them for everything from trying and failing to get an Uber to boosting our #personalbrands through cool Instagrams, not to mention getting that friend of a friend to give us a lift home. Austin, please stop draining my battery.

5. Dreadlocks on white people is still a thing.

Unless you've been to a Phish show in the past few years, you probably thought dreadlocks on white people was over. Well, it's not. Apparently all the dreadlocked white people have been in hiding, waiting until SXSW 2014 to come out in droves. Seriously, they are everywhere out here. We thought about making an entire photo gallery of 50 White People With Dreadlocks at SXSW but then we decided that we'd just keep eating tacos and not taking pictures of white people with dreadlocks.

Shit, even Gaga joined in the white dread fun at SXSW:

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7. After midnight, nobody tweets about anything except The Illmore.

There are a lot of events going on past midnight in Austin during SXSW. Plenty of shit, and lots of things worth tweeting about. But apparently, The Illmore manages to attract everyone who is active on Twitter and at SXSW and out past midnight. Props to the ILLROOTS team for their stronghold on the late night tweeters in Austin. Fall back, other late night SXSW events—nobody tweets about you.

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9. Ty Dolla Sign is the coolest person in Austin.

Yesterday, Pigeons & Planes had a party at the Complex house. Before things even really got started, Ty Dolla Sign showed up. He came in, said hi to some people, smoked some weed, shared his weed, and stayed to watch some of the show. He saw Meg Myers perform. He loved her. "Meg Myers is great," he said. Then he met Meg Myers. Then he took pictures with people. Then he said thanks and left. He didn't do anything specifically to make anyone there think, "Oh shit, Ty Dolla Sign is the coolest!" but he didn't have to, because he's just one of those people. Cool as hell. Fuck yeah, Ty Dolla Sign, thank you for coming.

10. SXSW isn't about the little guys any more.

Kanye West and Jay Z.

Lady Gaga.

Pusha T and Cam'ron.

St. Vincent and Damon Albarn.

Future, Four Tet, DJ Mustard.

These are just some of the shows that got people talking and had SXSW really buzzing. That is not to say that there isn't a huge amount of small artists playing at tiny venues, but it's hard to feel like the festival is really focussed on the small artists when you're walking past a giant wall covered in Doritos.

Is this a bad thing, or a good thing? Probably a mix of both, because as much as the small venues and rising artists lose a bit of visibility, the mixture of massive names with no-names makes for some wonderful contrasts.

11. Austin's not as weird as it claims to be.

"Keep Austin Weird" is the official slogan of Austin thanks to the Austin Independent Business Alliance. But here's the thing, biz bros: your city isn't actually that weird. We came here from New York City thinking we were going to see a bunch of freaks, and all we got is some music fans and a lot of white people with dreadlocks. In fact, the concept of this post was actually The 10 Weirdest Things We Saw in Austin. But then the only weird thing we saw was a bunch of white people with dreadlocks. And that's really only weird because there are so many of them. Maybe Austin is just riding that normcore wave.

12. If you go to a rap showcase you'll hear "OG Bobby Johnson."

You see a small queue outside a cool looking venue at SXSW and decide to investigate further. There are no signs saying what exactly the show is, but as you push open the door you're hit by a blast of bass and then, "Word on the street I'm a suspect." And if not straight away, you're guaranteed to hear it within 10 minutes.

To be honest, we're not that mad at hearing this song multiple times per day, but when you hear the song multiple times at one single showcase it's like, yo DJs, there are other rap bangers out there.

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14. You think you're going to see 7 shows, but once you get into one you end up staying all day.

This year was our first time at SXSW, and there are lots of things we are still slowly learning.

Before we arrived, we were looking at all the artists playing and showcases going on, and planning how we could go to every single one of the 120 shows that looked hot. Routes from venue to venue were planned lists of artists were written, and a plan of attack was made. The reality was much different.

After queueing for a bit you get into a nice spot with tables sitting out in the sun, good music playing, and a few different rooms to explore. Wait what, and there's a free bar up in this joint? I think we're going to be staying here for a while. And then a while turns into five rounds of drinks and it's suddenly the end of the day.

You may not have seen all the bands you wanted, but you had a good time, and didn't spend all day rushing around, trying to jump queues, and invariably getting screwed over by changing set times, so it's all good.

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